About

Spearheading Immunotherapies

Harpoon is a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company developing a novel class of T cell engagers that unleash the natural power of the T cells to fight cancer and other diseases.

At the heart of Harpoon’s approach is a novel antibody-derived platform called TriTAC™ (Tri-specific T cell Activating Construct) designed for targeted penetration and destruction of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies, and engineered to bind to human serum albumin for improved therapeutic schedule and patient convenience.

Gerald McMahon, PhD

President and Chief Executive Officer

Dr. McMahon brings has more than 25 years of exceptional biotechnology leadership, scientific innovation and creative deal-making experience. With broad disease-area expertise and a specialty in oncology therapeutics, he has held scientific, pharmaceutical and venture capital positions, has been the CEO of multiple drug development companies and has discovered, developed, and licensed novel therapeutics leading to value-creating portfolios including drug approvals.

Dr. McMahon has held academic appointments at the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center at Yale University, Tufts University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his BS in biology and PhD in the field of biochemistry and genetics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Susan Dana Jones

Senior Vice President, Product Development

Susan Dana Jones joined Harpoon in July 2017 as Senior Vice President, Product Development. She brings more than 30 years of experience to her new position, including biopharmaceutical and vaccine product development, outsourcing, project management and strategic planning. Dr. Jones has served as Vice President and Principal Consultant of BioProcess Technology Consultants (BPTC) for 16 years, where she focuses on manufacturing requirements for advancement of product candidates from early discovery through all stages of clinical development. She has previously served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Serenex, Vice President of Product Development at Waratah Pharmaceuticals, and Vice President Technology Strategy at Dyax Corp. Dr. Jones received her Bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Harvard University, holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California, San Francisco, and performed post-doctoral research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute of Harvard Medical School.

Georgia L. Erbez

Chief Financial Officer

Georgia L. Erbez joined Harpoon in October 2018 as Chief Financial Officer, bringing financial, operational and strategic advisory experience in multiple biotech settings, as well as investment banking. She previously served as Chief Business Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Zosano Pharma, a therapeutics company focused on migraine. She served as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Asterias Biotherapeutics and Chief Financial Officer, Secretary and Treasurer of Raptor Pharmaceuticals, where she helped to navigate the company through a growth period that included its first drug approval and subsequent commercial launch. Prior to Raptor, Ms. Erbez was a Managing Director, Healthcare Investment Banking at Collins Stewart, a Founder and Managing Director at Beal Advisors, and a senior level investment banker at Jefferies & Company, Inc. and Cowen and Company. She has also held positions at the investment banks Hambrecht & Quist and Alex. Brown & Sons Inc. Ms. Erbez received a Bachelor of Arts degree, International Relations from the University of California at Davis.

Rachael Lester

Vice President, Corporate Development

Rachael Lester joined Harpoon Therapeutics in September 2017 as Vice President of Corporate Development, and is responsible for spearheading the company’s corporate strategy and business development activities. She brings nearly 20 years of experience in corporate and commercial strategy, business development and commercial operations. Most recently, as VP of Product & Marketing for Bruin Biometrics, she led the commercialization of SEM Scanner® , and drove ongoing R&D collaborations and partnerships. From 2010 through the approvals of Kyprolis™ and Stivarga™ and its acquisition by Amgen in October 2013, Ms. Lester served as Global Head of Strategic Asset Management at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, where she was responsible for portfolio management, strategic finance, sell-side corporate development, and strategy & innovation initiatives. At Deloitte Consulting, she held a leading role in the Life Sciences Strategy & Operations practice, as a thought leader and advisor to biotech clients on growth strategy, M&A, and new product planning & commercialization. Ms. Lester received a B.A. in neuroscience from University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Che-Leung Law, PhD

Vice President, Translational Medicine

Dr. Law joined Harpoon in April 2017 with more than 19 years of experience in the discovery and development of novel biologics and small molecules in oncology and immuno-oncology. Dr. Law most recently was senior director of preclinical research at Seattle Genetics, where he led target discovery, drug technology development, IND-enabling studies, translational research, and pharmacodynamic and biomarker research. Dr. Law previously held scientific positions at CDR Therapeutics and Xcyte Therapies. He was also an affiliate assistant professor in the department of microbiology at the University of Washington for several years. Dr. Law received his PhD in pathobiology from the University of Minnesota and an MPhil in biochemistry from the University of Hong Kong.

Natalie R. Sacks, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Sacks joined Harpoon in October 2018 as Chief Medical Officer, bringing extensive oncology and clinical development expertise. She most recently served as Chief Medical Officer of Aduro Biotech, a company focused on the advancement of novel immuno-oncology technologies. Previously, she was Vice President of Clinical Development at Onyx Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Amgen) where she played a key role in the development and approval of Kyprolis®, an FDA-approved therapy for the treatment of multiple myeloma, and in business development strategy. Prior to that, she served as Vice President of Clinical Research for Exelixis where she directed the development of a portfolio of small molecules, with responsibilities ranging from IND filings to late-stage development, including development of Cometriq™. Earlier in her career, Dr. Sacks served as Vice President of Clinical Development at Cell Genesys, a company focused on the development of cancer vaccines and engineered chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells. She received her M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, her M.S. in Biostatistics from the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health and her B.A. in Mathematics from Bryn Mawr College. Dr. Sacks was an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and served as volunteer Attending Physician in Hematology-Oncology at San Francisco General Hospital for more than a decade. She serves as a board member for Zymeworks Inc. and Caribou Biosciences.

Holger Wesche, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Wesche joined Harpoon Therapeutics with 20 years of biotech experience focused on target validation, drug discovery and drug development as well as multi-site project management in the fields of oncology and inflammation. His previous role was as scientific director at Amgen where he was responsible for cross-functional organization and coordination of the next generation BiTE platform, the industry’s leading T-cell engaging antibody platform. He also led several drug discovery projects through pre-clinical development. Dr. Wesche is co-author of numerous publications and several US patents. Dr. Wesche received his PhD, summa cum laude, in biochemistry and Immunology from the University of Hannover, Germany.

Christopher Whitmore

Vice President, Finance

Mr. Whitmore has more than 15 years of experience in strategic finance, accounting, operations, investor relations, organizational planning and oversight. Prior to Harpoon, he served as Vice President, Finance and Administration for Immune Design, a publicly-traded immuno-oncology company. Prior to Immune Design, he held management positions of increasing responsibilities at AcelRx Pharmaceuticals and Sangamo Therapeutics. He started his career at KPMG LLP, where he served as a manager in the audit practice, and holds an active CPA license. Mr. Whitmore received his B.A. in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Board of Directors

Luke Evnin, PhD

Dr. Evnin is the chairman of the board and a co-founder of Harpoon Therapeutics; he is also the co-founder and managing director of MPM Capital. MPM Capital is known for its leadership role in building companies such as Biomarin, CoStim Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Novartis), Epizyme, Idenix (acquired by Merck) Pacira, Pharmasset (acquired by Gilead) and Radius. Dr. Evnin was the lead investor and has served on the boards of several of MPM’s most successful investments including CoStim Pharmaceuticals, Idun Pharmaceuticals, and Pacira. Prior to MPM, Dr. Evnin was a venture capitalist at Accel Partners where he focused on emerging healthcare companies. He received his AB in molecular biology from Princeton University and received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco. He is the chairman of the Scleroderma Research Foundation, as well as an advisor for the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Quantitative Genomics at Princeton, for QB3 at UCSF, and for Mission Bay Capital at UCSF.

Patrick Baeuerle, PhD

Dr. Baeuerle is co-founder of Harpoon and remains a key consultant for the company. He is an executive partner of MPM Capital and has co-founded MPM companies TCR2, iOmx, and Maverick Therapeutics. Prior to joining MPM, Dr. Baeuerle oversaw the development of T-cell engaging antibody Blincyto® (blinatumomab), and spearheaded the development of the BiTE platform as chief scientific officer for Micromet, Inc., and as vice president, research, for Amgen. He served as professor and chairman of biochemistry at Freiburg University, Germany, and is an honorary professor of immunology of the Medical Faculty at Munich University.

Mark Chin, MS, MBA

Mark Chin, investment manager at Arix Bioscience, currently sits on the board of Iterum Therapeutics, Harpoon Therapeutics and OptiKira. He was previously a principal at Longitude Capital, where he focused on investments in both private and public biotechnology and medical technology companies. Prior to Longitude, Chin was a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group, where he was responsible for strategy and corporate development projects for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Before BCG, he worked in corporate development at Gilead Sciences and market planning at Genentech. Chin has an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, an MS in Biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BS in Management Science from the University of California at San Diego.

Jonathan Drachman, MD

Dr. Drachman has more than 20 years of academic research, clinical oncology and biotechnology experience, most recently as Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development at Seattle Genetics, where he played a key role in the clinical development of Adcetris and advancing the pipeline of antibody-drug conjugates and immuno-oncology drug candidates. He currently serves as Strategic Advisor for Innovation for Seattle Genetics. Dr. Drachman completed his internal medicine residency and medical oncology fellowship at the University of Washington and was a faculty member in the Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine from 1998 through 2004. He received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Drachman also serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Calithera Biosciences.

Julie Eastland, MBA

Julie Eastland currently serves as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer of Rainier Therapeutics, a private biopharmaceutical company focused in FGFR3 bladder cancer. She previously served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer of Cascadian Therapeutics, helping negotiate the sale of the company to Seattle Genetics and assisting in the subsequent corporate transition. Prior to Cascadian, she served as Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance and Operations of VLST Corporation, a privately-held biotechnology company, and held various financial and strategic management positions at publicly traded biotechnology companies including Dendreon and Amgen. Ms. Eastland received an M.B.A. from Edinburgh University Management School and a B.S. in finance from Colorado State University.

Ron Hunt, MBA

Ron Hunt is a managing director at New Leaf Venture Partners, and focuses on investments in biopharmaceutical companies. Hunt was one of the founders of New Leaf following the spin out from the Sprout Group in 2005, and has nearly two decades of venture capital investment experience. Hunt has played a significant role in many of the firm’s investments in biopharmaceuticals and in other sectors. He is currently on the boards of Iterum Therapeutics and Neuronetics, Inc. Hunt is a graduate of The Wharton School (MBA) and Cornell University (BS).

Gerald McMahon, PhD

Dr. McMahon joined Harpoon in December 2016 bringing more than 25 years of biotechnology leadership, scientific innovation and creative deal-making experience. Dr. McMahon was previously president and CEO of Kolltan Pharmaceuticals, an oncology biologics company acquired by Celldex in 2016, and senior vice president of R&D oncology at MedImmune, the biologics arm of AstraZeneca. He also served as a venture partner at Bay City Capital and in executive leadership roles at Poniard Pharmaceuticals and SUGEN (ultimately acquired by Pfizer), where he was a key player in the development of innovative oncology drugs Sutent® and Palladia®.

Dr. McMahon holds an academic appointment at the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center at Yale University, and held previous appointments at Tufts University School of Medicine, department of hematology & oncology at the New England Medical Center, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his BS in biology and PhD in biochemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Scott Myers, MBA

Scott Myers currently serves as an independent director and Chairman of the Board of Rainier Therapeutics, a private biopharmaceutical company focused in metastatic bladder cancer. Previously, Myers was Chief Executive Officer, President and Director of Cascadian Therapeutics, a publicly traded oncology company acquired by Seattle Genetics (Nasdaq: SGEN) in March 2018. He has also held senior commercial operations, general management and information management positions for UCB SA, a Belgium-based biopharmaceutical company, and Johnson & Johnson. Myers earned his B.A. in biology from Northwestern University and his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business (Booth).

Scientific Advisory Board

Charles Drake, MD, PhD

Dr. Drake is director of genitourinary oncology and associate director for clinical research at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at New York-Presbyterian / Columbia University. A nationally recognized expert in immunotherapy, Dr. Drake also serves as co-director of Columbia’s Cancer Immunotherapy Programs and on the faculty of CUMC. Previously, Dr. Drake served as the co-director of the Cancer Immunology Program at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, where he was also co-director of the Prostate Cancer Multi-Disciplinary Clinic, and a professor of oncology, urology, and immunology. Dr. Drake is a physician-scientist whose work focuses on understanding and fighting advanced-stage cancers with the immune system. His most recent work has focused on the body’s immunological response to radiation therapy, immunotherapy and anti-tumor vaccines to treat cancer. He received his MD and PhD in immunology from National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Dr. Drake did his internship and residency in internal medicine, and medical oncology fellowship at Johns Hopkins.

Ramy Ibrahim, MD

Dr. Ibrahim serves as vice president of clinical development at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. A recognized leader of clinical development in immunotherapy, Dr. Ibrahim helped develop some of the first breakthrough treatments in the field during his tenure at Bristol-Myers Squibb and MedImmune/AstraZeneca. At AstraZeneca, he helped develop durvalumab (anti-PD-L1 antibody) and tremelimumab (anti-CTLA-4 antibody). Previously, at Bristol-Myers Squibb, he served on the Yervoy (ipilimumab) clinical team supporting the program through multiple global launches of the first FDA-approved immune checkpoint inhibitor. In addition, he played a key role in early development for nivolumab (PD-1), PD-L1 and CD137 antibody. Dr. Ibrahim is a trained medical oncologist, who conducted bench and clinical immunotherapy research at the cancer vaccine branch of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD. He received his MD from the National Cancer Institute at Cairo University, where he also did a fellowship in medical oncology.

Jeffrey Ravetch, MD, PhD

Dr. Ravetch is the Theresa and Eugene M. Lang Professor and head of the Leonard Wagner Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Immunology at The Rockefeller University. A pioneering immunology researcher, he won the 2017 Ross Prize in Molecular Medicine for his identification of the mechanism by which the specific structure of antibodies controls immune cell reactivity. Dr. Ravetch received his PhD from Rockefeller and his MD from Cornell University Medical College. He was on the faculty of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a guest investigator in Rockefeller’s Laboratory of Cellular Physiology and Immunology, before being appointed professor at Rockefeller in 1996. Dr. Ravetch has received the 2007 Coley Award from the Cancer Research Institute; the Canada Gairdner International Award and the Sanofi–Institut Pasteur Award, and the 2015 Wolf Prize in Medicine.

Charles Rudin, MD, PhD

Dr. Rudin, a board-certified medical oncologist specializing in lung cancer, is chief of the thoracic oncology service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is also co-chair of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group thoracic committee, and member of the National Cancer Institute thoracic malignancies steering committee. Dr. Rudin directs a broad research program of therapeutic research, including laboratory-based investigations to identify and test novel treatment approaches to small cell and non-small cell lung cancers. Some of these strategies include turning back on genes silenced in cancer, re-activating cancer cell death pathways and treating lung cancer with a cancer-specific virus. Dr. Rudin received his MD from the University of Chicago, and did his residency in internal medicine and fellowship in hematology/oncology at the University of Chicago.

Eric Small, MD

Dr. Small is a professor of medicine and urology, and chief of the department of medicine/division of hematology/oncology at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He is co-director of the urologic cancer service and director of urologic oncology research. His patient care and research focus is prostate cancer, immunotherapy and the mechanisms of resistance to standard therapies. He is a member of the Therapy Consortium of The Prostate Cancer Foundation, the largest private source of prostate cancer research funding, and on the board of directors of the American Prostate Cancer Foundation. He chairs the Prostate Cancer Correlative Sciences Working Group of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B Cooperative Oncology Group. Dr. Small earned a bachelor's degree at Stanford University and a medical degree at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, where he graduated with honors. While in medical school, he completed a fellowship in pathology. He completed post-graduate residency training in internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital and a fellowship in hematology and oncology at the UCSF Cancer Research Institute.